[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18046-18047]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         BREAKING THE AGREEMENT

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I wish to tell a story that is 
quite disturbing that happened in the Appropriations Committee 
yesterday. The Appropriations Committee, as reported to this Senator, 
had quite a row yesterday in the full committee in inserting a 
provision that will call for seismic exploration for oil and gas in the 
eastern Gulf of Mexico. It was such a row yesterday because it breaks 
the agreement that was made on the floor of the Senate last year in 
which the two Senators from Florida, this Senator and my colleague 
Senator Martinez, had agreed to a plan by which there can be additional 
oil drilling and gas drilling in a lease sale 181 that would not be 
what was sought--about 2 million acres--but it expanded 8.3 million 
acres in an expanded lease sale 181, but that kept it away from the 
coast of Florida and away from the military mission line which is the 
boundary protecting the largest testing and training area for the 
United States military in the world.
  Virtually all of the waters of the Gulf of Mexico off the State of 
Florida are this testing and training area. It is where we test our 
sophisticated weapons systems. It is where we test newly developed 
weapons systems. It is where we test weapons systems that have to go 
hundreds of miles, all of which these systems employ live ordinance 
under battlefield conditions in order to see that the equipment and the 
systems and the ordinance are all going to work.
  Over and over, we have had letters from the Secretary of Defense to 
the Senate saying we cannot have oil and gas rigs on the surface in the 
Gulf of Mexico in the area where we are doing all this testing and 
training.
  One wonders why, in the last round of the base realignment and 
closure, did the pilot training for the new FA-22 stealth fighter come 
to the Gulf of Mexico at Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City. It is 
because that system now, in all pilot training, does dogfights at 1.5 
mach. That is 1\1/2\ times the speed of sound. That is twice as much as 
the systems we have now, the F-16 and the F-15, twice as much that they 
do, the speed of air-to-air combat. As a result, they have to have so 
much wider area in which to have that turning radius as that weapons 
system is doing its practice in the dogfights shooting live ordinance.
  Is it any wonder why, in the development of the new joint strike 
fighter, the F-35, that the F-35, once it is developed, all the pilot 
training for the Navy, for the Air Force, and for the Marines will take 
place on the gulf coast and it will take place at Eglin Air Force Base. 
Why? The same reason. We have that restricted airspace in the largest 
testing and training area in the world, and now we have a breaking of 
the agreement as a result of yesterday's Appropriations Committee 
action, a breaking of the agreement that we had last year when this 
Senator and my colleague from Florida agreed we would have the 
expansion of lease sale 181 when it would not intrude into the military 
mission area.
  Now the Senator from Idaho, Mr. Craig, and the Senator from North 
Dakota, Mr. Dorgan, want to propose seismic exploration and 
inventorying of oil almost all the way up to the coast. Why do they 
want to do an inventory for oil unless they want to drill? This is 
exactly the situation that the oil industry will not give up. They want 
to drill, drill, drill, and that has been part of our problem for five 
decades as we have gone through this drill, drill, drill mentality 
without going to alternative energy sources. That is what has led us to 
the point we are today--so dependent on oil--and even to the point of 
now importing 60 percent of our daily consumption of oil is coming from 
places such as the Persian Gulf, Nigeria, and Venezuela, all very 
unstable parts of the world.
  Back to the breaking of the agreement. It was broken with regard to 
what we agreed to last year, that it was over and done with. We were 
going to protect the military mission area. That was broken yesterday 
in the Appropriations Committee.
  Another thing that was broken in the Appropriations Committee was the 
fact that in our agreement, the two Senators from Florida had clearly 
tried to protect a $57 billion a year tourist industry that depends on 
pristine beaches. Our tourism economy depends on those beaches not 
having oil slicks slapping up onto those pristine white sands.

[[Page 18047]]

  Naturally, the Senators from Florida are going to protect that 
interest. People say: Oh, no, the spills that occur don't come from the 
oil rigs out there, they come from tankers. But isn't it interesting 
that we have so many photographs of oil rigs and oil slicks in the Gulf 
of Mexico as a result of Katrina raging across the Gulf of Mexico and 
ultimately hitting Mississippi and Louisiana? We have pictures of oil 
rigs that are up-ended on the shore. We have pictures of pelicans, 
hundreds of pelicans that are dying, covered in oil slicks as a result 
of that storm causing the spills from those oil rigs. Now, we don't 
want that in Florida. We want to protect our beaches.
  It would be one thing if the geology showed there was a lot of oil 
and gas in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. But for the past 50 years, in 
the exploratory wells that have been there, there have been dry holes. 
The geology shows there is not that much oil and gas. Yet the oil 
industry never gives up, regardless of the agreements that have been 
made and were broken yesterday in the Senate Appropriations Committee. 
So it leaves no choice--no choice to the Senators from Florida. Senator 
Martinez and this Senator will employ every available rule to us under 
the Senate Rules Committee to block the progress of that Energy 
appropriations bill as it comes to the floor.
  There were representations made yesterday to this Senator and to 
Senator Martinez that the leadership of the appropriations subcommittee 
will, in fact, strip out that part of the bill when it comes to the 
floor. I take those Senators at their word. If that is the case, we 
will not have a big fight on the floor of the Senate, and we can 
proceed and go about appropriating the monies that we need in an energy 
and water appropriations bill--much needed funding for so many 
projects.
  Mr. President, it is with a realistic heart that I have to make this 
speech today. So it comes to this. I will take the word of those 
Senators, and I will rely on their word that we won't have to engage in 
all kinds of parliamentary maneuvers. But if that be necessary, it will 
be done.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SESSIONS. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Klobuchar). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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